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Selma Eikelenboom

Selma Eikelenboom Selma is a forensic medical expert. In 1999 she became the Forensic Medical Examiner for Amsterdam’s Municpal Medical and Health Authority.

Selma later worked in the crime scene investigation unit for the Netherlands Forensic Institute Department of Biology. Selma worked closely with European law enforcement authorities and the judicial system.

Independent Forensic Services

In 2003, Selma formed her own compnay, Independent Forensic Services, which is a private laboratory in the Netherlands that specializes in recovery of trace evidence and Touch DNA testing. Her husband Richard, joined as a partner in 2005. Together, their work in the Masters case led to the first Touch DNA exoneration in the United States.

Touch DNA and the Masters case

In the Masters case, Selma and Richard were successful in the recovery of full DNA profiles in three areas of the victim, Peggy Hettrick’s clothing. All three profiles matched an individual who was on the short list of suspects in the original investigation. In January of 2008, prosecutors agreed to vacate the conviction of Masters after the results of the DNA testing came back.

Jon Benet Ramsey Case

Since the Masters case, Colorado law enforcement authorities consulted with the Eikelenbooms and decided to use Touch DNA in the unsolved case of Jon Benet Ramsey. Boulder police had wrongly suspected Jon Benet’s parents of her murder ten years ago. The Eikelenbooms identified full DNA profiles from the areas of her clothing where the crime perpetrator gradded hold of her. The DNA profiles eliminated the Ramseys as suspects. The test results may someday lead to the identification of her real killer.